Rolling eye for dolls



April 22, 1958 G. E. POLI 2,831,292

ROLLING EYE FOR DOLLS Filed Aug. 22, 1956 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent ROLLING EYE FOR DOLLS Glauco E. Poli, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application August 22, 1956, Serial No. 605,677

4 Claims. (Cl. 46-168) This invention relates to mechanical eyes adapted to be mounted in the hollow heads of dolls and capable of rolling sideways as well as up and down.

An important object of the invention is to provide a mechanical eye of the above character which is lifelike in appearance, simple and inexpensive in construction, and which may be supplied to the trade for installation in the heads of dolls as a unit without requiring the preparatory assembly of its parts by doll manufacturers.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mechanical eye of the above character which may be made almost entirely of stampings from sheet material, with the exception of the pupil and of the weight for gravitationally controlling the movement of the eye, and incorporating a minimum number of parts.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a mechanical eye of the above character which may be compactly and completely enclosed within a shell forming a part of the eye structure so as to protect the movable parts of the eye against damage during shipment and handling.

A further object of the invention is to provide a mechanical eye of the above character in which the eyeball member may be easily assembled within an outer enclosing shell for universal movement by means of a pivot member which may be sprung into place by simple slight pressure applied thereto.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a view of a portion of the front of a dolls head showing the eye occupying a central position;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the eye of Figure 1 taken on the line 2-2 of that figure;

Figure 3 is an exploded view of the eye showing the individual parts thereof;

Figure 4 is a rear view of the eye assembly with the cover removed;

Figure 5 is a plan view of the pivot plate for universallyi mounting the eyeball member within the shell; and

Figure 6 is a side view of a plastic pupil for the eyeball member in which the eyelashes are molded integrally therewith.

The mechanical eye for dolls illustrated in the drawing comprises four principal parts, namely an outer shell A adapted to be secured in the opening in the wall of the hollow head of a doll, a hemispherical eyeball member B assembled within the shell A, a pivot member C providing a universal mounting for the eyeball member with respect to the shell A, and a cover D closing the open side of the shell A inside the dolls head. All of these parts are made of stampings from sheet material, such as light gauge sheet metal, although all or some of them may be made of sheet or molded plastic.

The shell A is of generally hemispherical form having parallel flattened sides 1 and provided with an eye opening 2 of generally elliptical shape. The rim of the shell 2,831,292 Patented Apr. 22, 1958 is adapted to be cemented or otherwise secured in one of the two holes provided in the wall of the dolls head H, with the flattened sides 1 disposed vertically of the face of the doll.

The eyeball member B is also of generally hemispherical form and of generally the same curvature as the shell A adjacent the portion of the shell surrounding the eye opening 2. The eyeball member may be painted to represent the pupil and iris of a human eye, but I prefer to fit or mold a glass or plastic pupil and iris 2a into the eyeball. Immediately above the pupil a slit is provided in the eyeball member, the edges of the slit being subsequently forced together to clamp a row of artificial eyelashes E therebetween. However, in cases where the eyeball is made of molded plastic, the pupil and the eyelashes may be molded as a unitary part, as indicated in Figure 6, and snapped into a socket in the eyeball member like a button. The upper and lower circumferential edges of the eyeball member B are cut away to define two vertically aligned notches 3 and 3a.

The convex outersurface of the eyeball member B fits snugly within the concave inner surface of the shell A behind the eye opening 2 and is free to oscillate freely by reason of the universal mounting provided by the pivot member C. This pivot member comprises a flat plate of springy material such as spring steel having two pairs of vertical and horizontal arms 4 and 4a, the arms of each pair disposed in alignment and the two pairs of arms being arranged at right-angles to each other. The vertical arms 4 which are slightly longer than the horizontal arms 4a terminate in narrow projections 5 which loosely fit within a pair of perforations 6 punched in the wall of the shell A adjacent its rim. The horizontal arms 4a likewise terminate in narrow projections 7 which loosely fit within a pair of perforations 8 punched in the rim of the eyeball member B, the pairs of perforations 6 and 8 being located at right-angles to each other. The pivot member C is thus free to rotate in the shell A about a vertical axis to allow the eyeball member to swing sidewise and to permit the eyeball to rotate about a horizontal axis to swing up or down. The notches 3 and 3a in the rim of the eyeball member provide a clearance for passage of the vertical arms 4 and also serve as abutments to limit the up-and-down movement of the eyeball. By making the pivot member of resilient material, the arms are free to flex so that the projections 5 and 7 may be sprung into the perforations 6 and 8, respectively, by applying slight pressure to a. face of the flat pivot member.

Gravitational means to cause the eyes to move up and down, simulating the opening and closing of the eyes of the doll, and to move from side to side is provided in the form of a small block of metal 9 mounted on integral extensions 10 of the eyeball member B and bridging the notch 3a. The weight 9 fences in the lower of the pair of vertical arms 4 of the pivot member C and provides a space with the notch 31: to afford freedom of movement for the eyeball member. The metal weight 9 is located at an elevation below the pivots 7 and projects rearwardly beyond the plane of the pivot member C to provide a short lever arm, and this weight likewise serves as an abutment with respect to the rim of the shell A to limit the sidewise swinging movement of the eyeball member about the vertical pivots 5.

The cover D is cup-shaped and provided with a circumferential flange 11 adapted to snugly fit over the opening of the shell A and completely enclose all the mechanical parts of the eye structure. The flange is secured in place on the shell by means of inwardly pressed projections 12 which engage depressions 13 formed in the rim of the shell.

As will be apparent from the foregoing description the mechanical eyes may be made in various styles and sizes ger of damage to the parts during shipment and handling. When the eyes are cemented or otherwise atiixed in place in the faces of the dolls they will open and close and shift from side to side depending upon the direction in which the doll is tilted, thus creating a very realistic and lifelike simultation of the movement of a human eye. An important advantage of the invention lies in the ease of assembly of the pivot member C with the perforations in the shell and eyeball member by slight pressure alone.

Manifcstly various changes in construction and design may be made in the mechanical eye described above without departing from the spirit of my invention as defined by the following claims.

Iclaim:

l. A unitary mechanical rolling eye for dolls and the like comprising an outer shell of generally hemispherical shape open at the rear and provided at its front with a generally oval-shaped eye opening, an eyeball member within said shell of generally hemispherical cup shape and open at its rear, vertically-aligned notches in the peripheral edge of the eyeball member, a pair of verticallyaligned apertures in the shell and a pair of horizontallyaligned apertures in the eyeball member, a substantially flat pivot plate having pairs of aligned arms extending vertically and horizontally, projections upon the ends of said pair of vertical arms rotatably mounted Within the pair of vertically-aligned apertures in the shell and projections upon the ends of said pair of horizontally-aligned arms rotatably mounted Within the pair of horizontallyaligned apertures in the eyeball member, the pair of vertically-aligned arms passing through the peripheral notches in said eyeball member and adapted to abut the edges of the notches in the eyeball member to limit the turning movement of the eyeball member about the horizonal axis of said pivot plate, and a weighted member bridging the lower notch in the eyeball member rearwardly of one of the vertical arms of the pivot plate, said weight projecting rearwardly of the shell and providing an abutment with the shell to limit the turning movement of the pivot plate member upon its vertical axis, the arms of said pivot plate being stifily flexible to allow the pairs of projections to be sprung into the pairs of apertures by pressure applied to the pivot plate during assembly of the shell and eyeball member.

2. A unitary mechanical eye for dolls and the like as set forth in claim 1 in which the pivot plate comprises a relatively thin sheet of stifily flexible material of generalty cross shape defining the pairs of vertical and horizontal arms.

3. A unitary mechanical eye for dolls and the like as set forth in claim 1 in which the shell, eyeball member, and pivot plate each comprise sheet material stampings secured in assembly solely by said pivot plate.

4. A unitary mechanical eye for dolls and the like as set forth in claim 1 including a row of hair-like strands of eyelashes molded into and forming a unitary part of the eyeball member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,137,772 Manning May 4, 1915 1,727,508 Konofi Sept. 10, 1929 2,213,676 Marcus Sept. 3, 1940 2,566,995 Rose Sept. 4, 1951 2,753,660 Brudney July 10, 1956 

